The University of Reading, Henley Business School and Chinese company Huawei are preparing to launch the first UK arm of an international ICT academy.

The Huawei Authorized Information Network Academy (HAINA) will soon provide teaching and support to ICT students and professionals at the business school and university.

The academy will be launched on Wednesday, December 9 at an event at the university's Whiteknights Campus, which will be hosted by university vice chancellor David Bell, business school dean John Board and Huawei UK enterprise managing director Jason Zhao.

Senior representatives from the university, business school and ICT company are also expected to attend, as well as local government representatives and members of the Chinese Embassy.

HANIA, which is currently operational in 100 universities around the world, covers a wide range of industry areas and students who participate can gain Huawei-branded certification, which is widely recognised in the ICT industry.

The collaboration builds on other partnerships that Henley Business School has developed over the last few years with Chinese organisations, including the Beijing Institute of Technology, Tianjin University and Zhejiang University.

Huawei, which opened a new UK headquarters in Green Park, Reading, in 2013, has contributed £956 million to the UK GDP since 2012 and has more than 1,000 employees nationwide.